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By Rina Chandran

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Mumbai on Sunday mopped up the streets where Islamist gunmen rampaged and killed nearly 200 people over three days, while Indian anger over the attack's alleged Pakistani links threatened the nuclear rivals' ties.

Anger at the intelligence failure and delayed response to the attacks on two of the best-known luxury hotels and other landmarks in India's financial capital prompted federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil to submit his resignation.

Newspaper editorials and commentaries blasted politicians for failing to prevent the attacks and for taking advantage of its fallout before elections on Delhi on Saturday and national polls due by May.

Indian officials have said most, perhaps all, of the 10 Islamist attackers who held Mumbai hostage with frenzied attacks using assault rifles and grenades came from Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved out of Hindu-majority India in 1947.

India said on Sunday it had proof of a Pakistani link to the attacks, raising the prospect of a breakdown of peace efforts going on since 2004. The two countries have fought three wars since 1947.

"We will increase security and strengthen it at a war level like we have never done it before," Sriprakash Jaiswal, India's minister of state for home affairs told Reuters on Sunday.

Pakistan has also said it would move troops from its western border with Afghanistan, where security forces are battling al Qaeda and Taliban fighters as part of the U.S.-led campaign against militancy, to the Indian border if tension escalated.

An official in Islamabad said the next one to two days would be crucial for the nuclear-armed neighbors'' relations. Pakistan has condemned the assaults and denied any involvement by state agencies.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani telephoned opposition politicians late on Saturday to brief them on the crisis and garner support.

"These political leaders assured the prime minister of their full support and cooperation at this critical juncture," Gilani's office said. Gilani had canceled a trip to Hong Kong, an official said.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said he would act swiftly on any evidence of Pakistani involvement.

MOPPING THE BLOOD

The three-day rampage and siege in Mumbai turned India's financial and entertainment hub into a televised war zone.

On Sunday morning, the smell of disinfectant was strong outside Cafe Leopold, and the sidewalk wet from the mopping -- a very different sight from Wednesday night, when blood-splattered shoes and napkins lay strewn among broken furniture and glass.

"We are opening today. I'm just waiting for my work force to turn up. We've cleaned up, put everything in order," said Farhang Jehani, who with his brother Farzad, owns and runs the cafe.

Elite Black Cat commandos killed the last of the gunmen on Saturday after three days of room-to-room battling inside the Taj Mahal, one of several landmarks struck in coordinated attacks on Wednesday night.

Hundreds of people, many of them Westerners, were trapped or taken hostage as the gunmen hurled grenades and fired indiscriminately. At least 22 of those killed were foreigners, including businessmen and tourists.

Nine gunmen and 20 police and soldiers were also killed. A tenth militant was caught alive.

On Saturday, India's navy and coast guard boosted coastal patrols, after evidence mounted the attackers had come by boat to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan's main port.

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Saturday he was closely monitoring the Mumbai attacks and pledged "full support" to India during the investigations.

India's Home Ministry said the official toll in Mumbai was 183 killed. Earlier, Mumbai disaster authorities said at least 195 people had been killed and 295 wounded.

The attacks struck at the heart of Mumbai, the engine of an economic boom that has made India a favorite emerging market.

The city of 18 million is also home to the "Bollywood" film industry, the epitome of glamour in a country blighted by poverty.

(Reporting by New Delhi, Mumbai and Islamabad bureaux; Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Jerry Norton)

By Darren Schuettler

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai police on Sunday again ordered anti-government protesters who have laid siege to the city's airports to disperse, banning gatherings of more than five people and warning offenders would be jailed or fined.

Hours after a grenade blast wounded more than 50 protesters, and ahead of a big rally in the Thai capital planned by government supporters, the five-point statement did not say how police intended to enforce the emergency rules.

Flights in and out of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International airport and the mostly-domestic Don Muang airport have been paralyzed by a siege by People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters seeking to overthrow the government.

Sunday's statement was issued by Lieutenant-General Suchart Muenkaew Chief, the police negotiator at Don Muang airport. A separate police division is responsible for Suvarnabhumi.

Much earlier, a grenade was thrown at Government House, the prime minister's office occupied by PAD supporters since August.

The grenade blast at Government House was the latest aimed at the PAD supporters there and was among the most bloody. A PAD spokesman said 51 people were wounded, four critically.

The sit-ins at Suvarnabhumi and the city's domestic hub, Don Muang, are the latest escalation in the PAD's "final battle" to unseat a prime minister it accuses of being a front for former leader Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and lives in exile.

He still has strong support among the urban and rural poor, and the pro-Thaksin Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship (DAAD) says it will bring 100,000 supporters to central Bangkok on Sunday afternoon in a show of support for the government.

ALLEGED BIAS

Veera Musikapong, a DAAD leader, told the Nation newspaper one focus of the rally would be the alleged bias of the courts.

The Constitutional Court has moved with uncharacteristic speed to conclude a vote fraud case on Tuesday, widely expected to lead to the disbanding of Somchai's People Power Party (PPP) and two other partners in the ruling coalition.

"It is obvious that there is interference with justice. It was well planned, and this is a concealed coup," Veera said.

If the court dissolves the three parties, Somchai and other leaders would be barred from politics and many cabinet ministers would have to step down.

Police said they would try to keep the rival political groups away from each other.

On Saturday night, about 150 riot police fled a checkpoint near Suvarnabhumi after they were attacked by PAD militants armed with iron rods and slingshots and hurling firecrackers.

The chaos caused by the airport sit-ins has sparked rumors of a military coup, even though the army chief has said he will not seize control. Somchai has rejected military calls to hold a snap election.

Deputy Prime Minister Olarn Chaipravat said the damage to Thailand's image, at a peak time for tourism, may cut arrivals by half to 6-7 million in 2009 and threatens a million jobs.

The government is shuttling tourists to U-Tapao, a Vietnam War-era naval airbase 150 km (90 miles) east of Bangkok, as an alternative landing site for airlines, but travelers have complained of massive delays and confusion.

Foreign governments are increasingly concerned.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said hundreds of Australians were stranded in Thailand and national carrier Qantas had offered to put on extra flights to take them home.

"It's very frustrating for us and it's very frustrating for those stranded Australians," he told Australian television.

There was one bit of good news on Sunday. Around 460 Thai Muslims who have been sleeping at Suvarnabhumi since their flight to Mecca was canceled by the protests are to do their pilgrimage after all, thanks to a chartered Iran Air flight from U-Tapao.

"We are leaving today, finally," said Yusuf Waedaramae, 33, a Thai living in Australia who had come to Bangkok to take his mother to the haj.

(Additional reporting by Khettiya Jittapong and Ed Cropley; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Valerie Lee and Jerry Norton)

By Randy Fabi

JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Sporadic bursts of gunfire rattled the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday as the security forces tried to prevent more clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in which hundreds of people have been killed.

Rival ethnic and religious mobs have burned homes, shops, mosques and churches in fighting triggered by a disputed local election in a city at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south. It is the country's worst unrest for years.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the main mosque where members of the Muslim community have been bringing their dead.

A Red Cross worker said on Saturday he had counted 218 bodies awaiting burial in the building. The overall death toll was expected to be much higher with some victims already buried and others taken to hospitals and places of worship.

"They are still picking dead bodies outside. Some areas were not reachable until now," said Al Mansur, a 53-year old farmer who said all the homes around his had been razed.

Soldiers patrolled on foot and in jeeps to enforce a 24-hour curfew imposed on the worst-hit areas. Overturned and burned-out vehicles littered the streets while several churches, a block of houses and a school in one neighborhood were gutted by fire.

The Red Cross said around 7,000 people had fled their homes and were sheltering in government buildings, an army barracks and religious centers. A senior police official said five neighborhoods had been hit by unrest and 523 people detained.

SIMMERING TENSIONS

Nigeria's 140 million people are roughly equally split between Muslims and Christians and the two communities generally live peacefully side by side.

But ethnic and religious tensions in the country's "middle belt" have bubbled for years, rooted in resentment by indigenous minority groups, mostly Christian or animist, toward migrants and settlers from the Hausa-speaking Muslim north.

The latest clashes between gangs of Muslim Hausas and mostly Christian Beroms began early on Friday and were provoked by a disputed local government chairmanship election.

Hundreds were killed in ethnic-religious fighting in Jos, the capital of Plateau state, in 2001. Hundreds more died in 2004 in clashes in Yelwa, also in Plateau, leading then-President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare an emergency.

Unrest in the state has in the past triggered reprisal attacks between different ethnic and religious groups in other areas of the country.

But the security forces appear to have reacted more quickly than in the past to contain the violence in Jos, with the army sending in reinforcements from neighboring states.

(Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Dominic Evans)

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The shuttle Endeavour astronauts packed equipment and tested landing systems on Saturday before a scheduled Sunday homecoming at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

During their 16-day mission, the shuttle astronauts prepared the International Space Station for an expanded, six-member crew by delivering a water recycling system, a second toilet, two small bedrooms, a galley and additional exercise gear.

The astronauts also conducted four spacewalks to fix a long-standing problem that was hampering the station's solar-powered electrical system.

"We came up here with a very long list of objectives and (although) we encountered a glitch or two along the way, we managed to achieve them all," Endeavour commander Chris Ferguson said during an in-flight interview on Saturday.

"My mind is on the landing," he said, "but I'm extremely satisfied with what this fine crew has accomplished."

Endeavour is set to touch down at NASA's Florida base at 1:19 p.m. EST (1819 GMT) to wrap up the agency's fourth and final mission of the year.

But weather forecasts show possible crosswinds and thunderstorms near the landing site on Sunday. The shuttle could stay in orbit until the weather clears or land at Edwards Air Force Base in California instead, said Bryan Lunney, a NASA flight director.

'YESTERDAY'S COFFEE'

Nine shuttle flights remain, including a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope, before the ships are retired in 2010.

Among the items returning to Earth for analysis are bags of what Endeavour crewmember Don Pettit delicately termed "yesterday's coffee."

He worked with station commander Mike Fincke and returning station flight engineer Greg Chamitoff to install a water purification system that recycles urine and humidity condensate from the air into drinking water.

NASA wants to have the system running for three months before adding three more residents to the orbital research base. The shuttle remained docked at the space station for an extra day to bring home water that had been processed through the machine.

Ferguson, pilot Eric Boe and flight engineer Stephen Bowen checked Endeavour's steering jets and movable body flaps that will be needed during Sunday's descent and landing.

After scanning the shuttle's wings and nose for possible damage from orbiting debris, NASA officials ruled it fit to withstand the extreme heat of re-entry.

"It's as clean or cleaner than any vehicle we have ever flown," said LeRoy Cane, chairman of the mission management team.

Astronauts also released a small satellite for the Air Force intended to test a new type of solar cell.

(Additional reporting by Chris Baltimore in Houston; Editing by Xavier Briand)

By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers awoke early for post-Thanksgiving sales on Friday in a key test of the country's ability to withstand economic turmoil as sharp production declines in Asia gave fresh evidence of the global crisis.

Fighting wore on in India's commercial capital, Mumbai, where Islamist militants launched attacks on Wednesday, while unrest in Thailand also underlined the political risks facing emerging markets already grappling with economic disarray.

U.S. retailers opened early and offered steep discounts on the day after Thanksgiving known as "Black Friday," hoping for a strong start to a holiday shopping season that experts predict may be the worst since the early 1990s.

"If you don't get a good Black Friday start, you've got an awful lot of ground to make up," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with NPD Group.

In Europe, data showed inflation falling sharply and a steeper rise in unemployment than predicted -- factors that raise pressure on the European Central Bank to cut interest rates substantially next week.

The shake-up of European banks continued as the British government acquired a majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and Germany's Commerzbank accelerated its takeover of Dresdner Bank.

Chinese insurer Ping An provided a striking example of the turmoil's global nature when, a government source said, it asked China's government to help seek compensation from Belgium over losses in European financial group Fortis.

The worst economic woes in decades also took more casualties beyond the financial sector, as Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics cut its fourth-quarter outlook and German industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp warned it does not expect to reach its long-term financial targets.

The U.S. benchmark Dow Jones industrial average closed 1.2 percent higher while other major U.S. indices rose as markets closed early for the holiday weekend. European shares also rose. Japan's Nikkei ended up 1.7 percent.

BLACK FRIDAY SALES

Many are looking for economic signals this weekend from the United States, where the crisis began with a collapse in the U.S. mortgage market that saddled banks throughout the world with bad debt.

Black Friday sales provide a strong gauge of consumer confidence, a major driver of the U.S. economy, as the run-up to Christmas nets up to 40 percent of retailers' annual sales.

Shoppers rose before dawn to peruse bargains at stores from Wal-Mart to Macy's Inc and Best Buy Co Inc, some opening at 4 a.m. (0900 GMT) to lure bargain hunters.

But store traffic appeared about 25 percent lighter than a year ago, a top retail analyst said. The Standard & Poor's Retail index fell 1.6 percent.

Consumers are cutting spending on nearly everything but necessities as they endure a housing slump, mounting job losses and the credit crunch.

"The recession is kicking in," said Tammy Williams, 36, as she waited to enter a New Jersey Kohl's Corp store. "I'm just looking for a bargain, anything to save a couple of dollars. I'll save the rest for food shopping."

Japan announced a fall of 3.1 percent in industrial output for October, more than expected. Household spending in the world's No. 2 economy also fell more than expected.

DEEPER, LONGER

The Japanese data surprised economists and suggested the economy was in for a deeper and longer recession than earlier thought.

"Production is falling much faster than we had expected. Companies are adjusting their production very quickly," said Takumi Tsunoda, senior economist at Shinkin Central Bank Research. "The auto makers are the worst hit, but their turmoil is starting to spill over to other sectors, such as steel."

South Korea, Asia's fourth-biggest economy, followed Japan's pattern in reporting a sharp drop in factory output in October, leading some analysts to expect a recession.

India, like China a major contributor to global economic growth in recent years, reported better than expected growth of 7.6 percent in the third quarter. But the economy lost momentum from the prior quarter's 7.9 percent growth and prospects were clouded by the Mumbai attacks.

Consumer price inflation in the Euro zone fell 1.1 percentage points, the biggest drop since the zone was created 10 years ago, to 2.1 percent year-on-year.

The continent's troubles were underscored in Sweden, which joined the growing number of nations officially in recession.

Reflecting the gloom over the auto industry from Detroit to Tokyo, a top executive at Honda Motor Co told Reuters Japan's No. 2 automaker faced a "Herculean task" meeting its already downgraded profit goals for this year.

(Additional writing by Ralph Boulton in London; Reporting by Reuters bureaus worldwide; Editing by Brian Moss)

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